One. Single. Player.
Out of the hundreds of girls playing high school badminton in the province, across every Grade from 9 to 12 and after a series of playdowns beginning at the city level, only Shellbrook’s Marissa Skavlebo was able to best Behrns on the court – and as one can imagine, that made for a pretty big weekend for the Cornerstone Christian School standout at the provincial championships in Swift Current on Saturday.
Behrns – in only her first year as a senior-level player and in Grade 9 at that – reached the gold medal final in girls singles before falling 21-19, 21-14 to Skavlebo and claiming the silver medal.
That capped another remarkable weekend for the reigning city champion, after reaching provincials without dropping a single set in either districts or regionals.
Behrns opened the round robin portion of provincials with a 2-1 win over Notre Dame’s Ali Fournier before dropping a 2-1 decision to Skavlebo in her second game. That set up a crucial contest against Neilburg’s Ethel Borja, with Behrns more than up to the task and taking a 2-0 win to finish second in the pool.
That sent Behrns into the medal round semifinal, where she promptly found herself in a war: Meadow Lake’s Kayleen Oftedal had finished 3-0 in the other pool and was no shrinking violet herself. The end result was an epic battle, but a win for Behrns all the same as she won the first set 22-20 after a back-and-forth tilt before finishing things off with a 21-11 win in game two.
Estevan’s Ruth Pecson finished third with a 21-14, 21-10 win over Oftedal.
